Oubliette
by burnt-silver
Summary: Oneshot continuation of the final scene of the movie. Oubliette: A secret dungeon with access only through its ceiling; from the French 'oublier', to forget.
Oubliette by burnt silver

Fanfic for the movie Prisoners

Description: Continuation of the final scene, because a movie ending like that is begging for a little fanfic, isn't it? Oubliette: A secret dungeon with access only through its ceiling; from the French 'oublier', to forget.

Disclaimer: I don't own the movie Prisoners.

T rating for language and references to events in the movie.

-x-

 _Tsss... tsss... tsss..._

What was... was that even a sound?

What the hell _was_ that?

It was so faint, and Detective Loki shook his head and told himself he was imagining it, that he probably did have concussion after all, that he'd just had a goddamn bullet glance off his temple-

-But then he heard it again, and he _knew_ that something was going on here, _felt_ it in the bones of his ribcage extending from his spine like the branches of the New England trees around him.

Loki stood absolutely still, silent as the grave, and listened.

 _Tsss... tsss... tsss..._

He took a few steps closer to where the sound seemed to be coming from and cast his eyes around the area. Was it coming from the Trans-Am? Maybe someone was trapped in there - and in a split second he was over by the car, reaching to pop the trunk though he assumed it wouldn't open - but it did-

-And it was empty. In frustration Loki pounded the heel of his hand on the open edge of the trunk. Eyelids twitching, he stopped and listened for the whistling sound again.

 _Tsss... tsss... tsss..._

The young detective pulled his mini flashlight from the pocket of his black jacket and used it to scan the trunk carefully. It was completely empty and not even dirty. He slowly paced the whole way around the car, flashing the light inside. The window to the driver's seat was half open, the keys were in the ignition and it looked like it had been driven recently. He got in, sat in the driver's seat and opened compartments. They were all empty.

Loki sat silently, ran a hand over his slicked back hair and listened for the noise again. He couldn't hear it so well. Shit, he was fucking imagining the whole thing.

He got out of the car and couldn't stop himself from pacing around the whole car once again, using his flashlight to scan the surrounding ground in each direction. Grass, dirt, twigs. This was fucking ridiculous. At the last minute before giving up, he crouched down, shone the light under the chassis and saw the wooden board covering the ground.

"Shit," he hissed, and before he knew it he was in the car and had put it into reverse and driven backwards until the whole board was exposed to the bite of the winter night air. He jumped out of the car and crouched, lunged and grunted to pull the board out of position - and his heart plummeted into his gut when he saw the exposed opening in God's good earth.

"Alright," he growled to a Creator he couldn't stop talking to even though he'd given up on Him. "What the fuck is it now?"

And he shone his flashlight into what turned out to be a large underground chamber. His eyelids twitched as he moved his flashlight skittishly, illuminating endless inches of soil... detritus... bloodied... clothes? - And fuck - an elbow - an upper arm - shoulder-

"Holy Jesus fuck," Loki grunted as he made out the dirt-covered, unconscious face of Keller Dover, a child's reddish-pink toy whistle shoved ridiculously between his lips.

 _Tsss... tsss... tsss..._

Loki stood up and looked around - there was no movement from any living being anywhere nearby, just darkness and trees and houses and streetlights and the bare road, and his mind ticked along quickly and he flashed his torch down into the chamber again to judge how deep it was. He quickly retrieved a bottle of water from his car while calling for an ambulance and calling his boss. Then he put everything in his pockets, exhaled heavily, lowered himself to sit on the edge of the hole and quickly dropped in.

He yelped as he hit the ground, then the stale smell made him gag and cough. But he wasn't injured, and he grabbed his flashlight again and crawled across to Dover straight away, pulled the whistle from the older man's lips and shook his shoulder a little.

"Mr Dover? Mr Dover."

He passed the flashlight carefully over the man's body and saw that Dover had made a makeshift tourniquet for a bleeding wound on his leg. Shit, that old bitch _shot_ him.

"Mr Dover."

Dover started awake, wheezing, dry eyelids scratching quickly over unfocused eyes, and he pushed himself away from Loki while giving out panicked grunts-

"Mr Dover, it's Detective Loki. It's Loki. Keller, it's OK, you're alright."

Loki tried to keep hold of the older man's shoulder, gently. He remembered being this close to Alex Jones maybe only a few days ago, pressing up against him in the interrogation room, close enough to smell his nervous sweat and his cheap clothes, close enough to know the physical contact was freaking him out. Now, here in this shadowed chamber, he kept his touch solid and simple and it worked: Dover stopped struggling, finally seemed able to focus his eyes on the detective, and then he quickly rasped-

"Anna - Anna-"

"It's okay, we got her," Loki told him quickly. "She's alive, she's fine, she's with your wife. Abigail Jones is dead."

Dover's face crumpled immediately and he heaved two pathetic, juddering sobs, his eyes completely dry, then he started to cough violently. As the coughs quietened, Loki held his bottle of water to Dover's lips and helped him take a few sips.

"I need you to just stay calm right now, Mr Dover, OK? There's an ambulance on its way," Loki tried to say clearly, but before the words were even out of his mouth Dover had passed out again.

-x-

The next time Dover woke up the two men were travelling in the back of an ambulance to the hospital. Dover was lying on a gurney, his dirty, bloody appearance jarring in the clean sterile environment. His leg was already in a splint and Loki and a paramedic were seated beside him. Loki was sitting leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, dark bangs falling in his soil-smudged face, heels of his hands pressed against his eyes; trying to clear his mind of images of dirt, blood, children's socks, snakes, mazes. Dover grunted and the detective's head jerked up, and he saw that the father's eyes were less wild now.

"Mr Dover, we're on the way to the hospital, and I've called your wife. Just try to relax."

 _Try to relax_. Dover's bitter laugh came out as a hoarse coughing sigh.

"What happened?" he rasped.

Loki exhaled, quickly deciding the minimum amount of information to tell Dover now. It wouldn't do him any good in this condition to learn all the details, it never did.

"I found Alex Jones at your father's place. I came to Abigail Jones' house to tell her, and I found her with your daughter." Dover took in a ragged sudden breath that was almost a sob, and Loki continued with twitching eyelids. "Jones shot at me, so I shot and killed her, and then I took Anna to the hospital. She'd been heavily sedated, but she recovered. She's going to be fine." _At least physically_.

It was only at this point that tears rolled from the corner of Dover's eyes down his temples to the pillow. He took in heavy breaths again and again, as if trying to breathe in God's peacefulness. "Thank you," he muttered over and over, and Loki wasn't sure whether the older man was still talking to him or not.

Loki still had his own prayer that he needed to recite.

"Keller Dover, you are under arrest for the kidnapping, false imprisonment and torture of Alex Jones. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say..."

As the young detective continued, Dover simply stared unfocused at the ceiling of the ambulance. Loki knew he should cuff the guy, but it wasn't as if there was any point at this stage. When he'd finished the Miranda rights, he sighed and passed a calloused hand over his face. He rubbed absently at a scab on his knuckle and looked out the window at the far end of the ambulance.

Outside, cold night rain was beating down onto slick black concrete, and Loki suddenly realised he was hungry - _starving_.

He thought, maybe he'd go back to that diner with that cute Chinese waitress. He thought, maybe this time he'd ask her out on a date.

-End-

A/N: Please review! I didn't get this beta'd, so I'd really welcome any positive or negative comments.


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